California's On Fire

Over the past weekend, a dry lightning storm crossed northern California, igniting hundreds of grass fires between Monterey and the Oregon border. Many of them are still burning. None is close to Sacramento, physically, but we are surrounded by a ring of fires. Because Sacramento is in a valley, the smoke has settled down and can't blow away. Air quality is very bad, and we are being advised to remain indoors and avoid exposure.

This has been a very dry year, with rainfall 5" below normal. So when the lightning storm swept across the state, grass that would have been still green was already dry as tinder, and burst into flame. They said there were over 9,000 lightning strikes, and over 800 fires on June 22!

The governor has declared a drought, and water metering is suddenly in the news again (not all homes have meters, but owners pay a flat fee, instead.) This is reminiscent of how things were when we moved to California in the early 90s - there was a drought then, too, which lasted for several years and prompted much coverage of water conservation, effects on agriculture and on the fish in the rivers and deltas. I guess we're in another dry cycle.

Oo -ooh, I'm in Love!

It took a tragedy to bring this sunshine. My old Sony Ericsson cell phone's video displays (inside and outside) crashed last week. The phone is still good for receiving and making calls as long as you manually key in the number. But I can't see what time it is, set or cancel the alarm, use my phone book or any of the menus, take pictures or even see what photos I'd already taken. In fact, I think I've lost some priceless photos of Mother and my daughter, because they're saved on the phone and not on my SIM chip - unless the phone's display miraculously comes back, I may never be able to retrieve them.

So - via a roundabout route, I bought my latest and greatest toy: a red Samsung Blackjack II smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.0, Microsoft Office mobile including Internet Explorer, a 1.2 Megpixel camera, and GPS. It has a lovely chiming ringtone. Now I just need people to call me! I'm inventing excuses to whip it out and push its buttons so I can look and feel Important.

The phone also has the capability of downloading songs and audiobooks onto its microSD memory card. I don't have a headset yet, so I'll wait to explore that feature until I've learned how to use the rest of the stuff it can do.

For my next trick, I'll post a photo from my Blackjack.

The Wireless Gateway Works!

I took it out of the box, read the instructions, and had a moment of panic - we needed to install filters on every phone jack using the phone number in the bundled plan. Got that handled, and was successfully able to connect and set up the DSL and wireless connections. It is noticeably slower than the cable connection, but not unbearably so. We don't have a cute name for the network, but it does require a l-o-n-g number for authentication, and the wireless signal is very good everywhere we would use the laptop. I think we're in business again!

Now all I need is a new cell phone: the display on my phone suddenly died yesterday afternoon. I can place and receive calls, but can't see anything in the display! They say my line isn't eligible for an upgrade until October, so I'm using a very old cell phone we keep as a backup for just such occasions. It has a monochrome display, and doesn't have an alarm or a camera - so I'm also back to setting the alarm clock every night ... How much more retro will I have to get?

What I really want is a Blackberry Curve or Samsung Blackjack II - but the data plans that come with those phones cost an additional $40-$70 over and above the cost of cell service, so I'm going to get a nice phone that has a deceent camera, an alarm, and an easy way to set the ring to vibrate.

Okay, I'm Coming In

I bit the bullet today, and ordered high-speed DSL Internet from AT&T. After a week in Hawaii with no Internet except for a half-hour per day next door, and after a weekend at home with no wi-fi, I gave up and decided to come in. Some adjustments needed to be made to the various accounts that will be bundled with the Internet service, but AT&T handled it efficiently, and it looks right now like the bundle with Internet added will cost about as much as I have been paying for the other two services: cell phones and land line. The wireless gateway is scheduled for delivery on Thursday; that will give us the option of being connected or using wi-fi. Assuming I can decipher the phone lines in the jack (there are three lines into our townhome; I am hoping to be able to set up my own connection before next weekend. Laurel is SO going to stay at home Thursday afternoon, so we don't miss the UPS delivery!